Hello folks, Nic here. And the journey continues......

So after the most inefficient check in procedure in San Fran, we finally made it to Calgary, and were met by Paula who I'd stayed with 8 years ago as part of my degree placement. Needless to say it was great to see a friendly face and to be looked after, although it was a little weird to back in the place where I've had found memories of for years - and especially with a new husband! Although I really did feel old when I met her kids .......eemmm adults! The youngest is now 16! The two older boys are doing well and Andrew is looking good for a successful ice hockey career, so things are well. After a couple of days chilling out we took her husband's car and drove to Banff for a few days. I loved the place the last time I was there so I was hoping that it would live up to the great memories I had. I wasn't disappointed. In fact, when we got there, we heard rumours of a weather warning for the next day. Boy, they weren't wrong! 50cm of snow in about 30 hours. A bit of a shock to the system after following the sun for 6 months. So as you can image, we weren't really geared up for a heavy snow fall - i don't think, t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops are appropriate. But none the less we put on as many clothes as we had, and braved the cold (and then hid in pubs when we just couldn't feel our extremities any more). Due to the snow, we decided to have a Christmas Day, because ours was spent having a bbq on a beach in Australia - and no matter how cool it sounds, it's just not right. You should be cold at Christmas! It was great. We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, took a walk along the river and watched wild deer etc and then went out for dinner, complete with xmas pressies! The next day we took a drive to Lake Louise along the quiet road where you get to see loads of wildlife, although there wasn't much about due to the weather, they had the right idea and hid away where it was warm and sheltered. Lake Louise was totally frozen over - covered with a bit more snow for good measure. It was cold! We didn't stay long, ha ha. A few photos then straight back into the car. We did manage to see some wildlife pretty close, like a Coyote and Elk - but no bears or cougars unfortunately.

So back to Calgary to get stuck in to organising things for the Canadian National Netball Championships. This is what I came over to do 8 years ago, so very spooky that we happened to be in town the same long weekend in May and for Alberta to be hosting it again. Andi rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in. Firstly to organise and then to play. At the practice session he was snapped up as they needed another player for the men's team. He was keen if not a little worried (about being able to play, and his reputation back home - wait til the rugby boys hear about this one!). But there was nothing to worry about, it's the first year for the men's team and most were partners and random strays just like Andi, who've only played for a few weeks, so he fitted right in. He did really well actually. Although certain things just didn't stick with him......like keeping in certain areas, not running with the ball, not elbowing the opposition, not talking back to the umpires, intimidating other payers...........but apart from that he was great! And history repeated itself, because one of the girls badly injured her ankle in training 2 days before the tournament, so I was asked to sit on the bench. As the women's open is the most important team, I was more than a little worried, but they were fully aware that I am incredibly unfit and have been eating pizza and drinking beer for the last 6 months, never mind not really having played netball since the last time I was here! So I was to be used as an emergency - and yes I got on for a while in a couple of games. I surprised myself in the first game as it all started to come back to me....but that must have been it, cause in the second game, I played like pants! Both our teams lost, but we'd fun anyway, and that was just the start cause the Banquet is what people really look forward to. Of course it was a Western theme, so we got out kit on, complete with Alberta belt buckles, neck ties and bottle holsters and line danced the night away. In fact Andi won best male line dancer (couldn't get him to sit down the whole night - I think he enjoyed pretending to be a cowboy) and he won this truly horific shirt, which he wore for the rest of the night. Talking to a few of the girls that I remembered from my last visit, I was disappointed to hear that the classy club known as 'Cowboys' had shut down. This was where I saw the great pop band 'The Vengaboys'......some of you may remember them....they had that really great hit 'The Vengabus is coming...... ' .....classic! But alas at the end of the night, and a hell of a lot of yeeee haaaaas, someone said it had reopened so off we all went. Yeee haaaa! We nearly didn't get in though cause we hadn't brought any ID with us (and it's essential round these parts) but after a bit o' craic with the doorman he let us in after being satisfied that we were old enough, as Andi remembered all the old wrestelers, like Rick Flair, and proceeded to demonstrate moves on the bouncer. Not a great idea in my opinion, but luckily he had a sense on humour. Andi didn't believe the story that the owners paid for the girls to get, shall we say, surgical enhancements,.....but it didn't take him long to change his mind on that one. However, the magic didn't last as some terrible band came on and we rapidly drank up and went home. The next day, we went to Liz's house for a huge bbq, shared photos and stories from the night before. Never sure if regrouping is a good idea or not!!!!

It was nice to be back and to be able to show Andi around the places I told him about all those years ago, when we'd just started 'courting'. All in all we enjoyed our stay in Calgary, but maybe that was because we had a room in a house, with our own bathroom, and we didn't need to repack every other day to move on!!!!! Off to see the Jarvis clan next in Toronto.